WSP05845 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Water Management Study: Upper Rio Grande Basin the general basis for water law in the Basin. Under its early application, the prior-appropriation doctrine allowed that a water right generally existed only insofar as the holder diverted water from the river and put it to beneficial uses. Over time, however, the tension has mounted as society has acquired greater understanding ofthe environmental and economic consequences of actions taken under the prior-appropriation doctrine and placed increasing value on the public goods derived from water, such as clean water, fisheries, recreation, and environmental quality (Bates et al. 1993; Ingram and Oggins 1992). Water-rights holders, environmental advocates, water-management institutions, public leaders, and courts are searching for ways to relieve the tension, but the economic forces we describe throughout this report indicate that the tension will continue to increase and the only meaningful option is to find reasonable, workable ways to manage it. ?;f <: ~.t Given the emphasis on promoting competitive markets in the American economy, there often is a temptation to conclude that things traded in markets are more important than those that are not. This temptation should be resisted as it applies to the Basin's water and related resources. Although there is no comprehensive assessment of the value society places on the public-good aspects of the Basin's water and related resources relative to the private-good aspects, several recent studies indicate there is good reason to believe that, in some places and times, public-good values are equal to or exceed the private-good values. Three recent studies provide some useful insights. " ~~~ ~ : " ", The first study, a 1990 analysis published by the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, compared the economic values of different water uses in the Upper Rio Grande, from the river's headwaters through El Paso County (Hansen and Hallam 1990). In particular, the authors conducted a marginal analysis, i.e., they focused on what would happen to the net value of the bundle of goods and services derived from water if a small, additional amount of water were used for irrigation or, alternatively, for recreational fishing. They found that the marginal value of increasing the supply of water for irrigation is zero, but the marginal value of increasing the supply for angling is about $100 per acre-foot (at). ~: ';;-' -:'5- ",.! The second study, conducted nearby in Colorado, looked at the potential increase in the total value ofthe bundle of goods and services that occurs when water is shifted from agricultural to urban uses (Booker and Young 1994). The authors specifically compared the consumptive aspects of agricultural and urban uses, which roughly correspond to private goods, with t~. i\: 80 .w ,r f"" A".^..-,,1. " 'Yj , ' .....~ ~... t"il;